The General Election- What it means for motorists!

The General Election- What it means for motorists!

There were many questions left unanswered ahead of the general election with politicians widely refraining from divulging information about plans that will affect the nation’s 37 million motorists in the build up to the vote. So, will road taxes and fuel costs rise? Will diesel drivers face additional taxes? And will there be any proposed changes to road traffic law and penalties imposed for road traffic offences?

Campaigning group Fail Fuel UK took action prior to the general election to assess the policies of each of the major political parties and identify which ones plan to ramp up the cost of car ownership if they were to park up at 10 Downing Street on 9th June.

37,000 campaign supporters contact their local consistency candidates earlier this week. Sadly, only 1,323 responded to a six-question survey focused on petrol and diesel costs and potential taxes and bans on diesel vehicles. The Liberal Democrats had the highest response rate with 260 with 240 responses received from both the Conservatives and Labour.

The results were that Fair Fuel UK gave its backing to the Conservative Party, which appeared more reluctant to increase fuel costs and ban diesel cars than rivals. The survey found that all 240 Tory Candidates who responded to the survey wanted to see a cut (67 per cent) or freeze (33 per cent) in fuel duty.

With regards to a possible rollout of the Toxic Tax policy aimed at diesel car owners, which is due to be implemented in London in October, the Conservatives were against this while Labour were split and the liberal democrats in favour of it and going further with the view that all diesel cars should be banned within 8 years.

This is a big issue at the moment and the possibility of a roll out of a Toxic Tax policy is clearly having an impact with diesel registrations slumping by 20% in May and 8% in the first 5 months of 2017.

No matter the outcome of the election it is likely that we will see changes in road traffic law or at least changes in sentencing powers available to the Courts. Scotland certain seems to be leading the way in the UK on increasing penalties on those not obeying the rules of the road with a decrease in the drink driving limit and a doubling of the penalty for driving whilst using a mobile phone and it seems only a matter of time before the rest of the UK follows suit.

So, with the Conservatives forming a coalition government with the DUP it would appear that the election result may be good for driver’s at least but the lack of policies for motorists in the party manifestos remains conspicuous by it’s absence.

We can only hope that motorists don’t remain the Treasury’s cash cow for the next 5 years and have to put up with the highest of taxes and lack of investment in our roads but one thing we need to keep in mind is the bigger picture; This election isn’t about political ideologies but keeping our fragile economy moving.